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Shoes to Fit Feet - the Difficult Ones

My wife has lovely feet but has a small toe which has been squeezed out of line. This makes it difficult to find shoes that fit her and we spend many hours searching. One year she could only wear toe post sandals. Imaging how strange she looked visiting the UK in Winter.

It made me think about shoe retail methods. The hundreds of shoes on display are mainly in the common sizes that move quickly out of the shop. Why are shoes not made for individual feet? I enrolled on a Futurelearn course to learn about 3D printing and I am learning a lot about prosthetics and implants but not much yet about the plastics involved.

Instructibles have a lot of shoes made from odds and ends but none from plastics. Google helped me find DWR plastics and this first experiment uses their soft grade of RTV Silicone moulding rubber.

Please try the experiment with other sources of material so that we can find out what works best.

An individual shoe can be created by pouring over the foot in about an hour.

A good product can relieve a lot of pain both here and in the 3rd world.

Step 1: Making the First Experiment

I'm afraid your shoes will not look like these!

This is a first attempt to try to get the method and and the ingredients right.

I will continue to record my work to help others and the world's feet.

The video shows the difficulty of getting the correct amount of pigment. Also my shoes did not have sufficient toe caps to be safe. The sock toes have adhered to the plastic but are inconvenient to wear.

I have now added pigmented plastic to add to the toe cap, spreading it over cling film feet without socks. I forgot to add the thickener so the addition was too thin and I added partly set plastic later so giving a lumpy appearance. This last addition did not set properly for some reason so I brushed some freshly mixed resin over the top. This then set quite well.

3 Discussions

As you can see from the video the objective is not to make a last. Everyone does that and it is expensive and difficult. You still have to make the shoe.The point is to pour a shoe around a living foot so that it fits perfectly.For the past few months I have been wearing the prototype shoe occasionally, after dark, to test its comfort and durability. It's good so I will have to test it harder then make a more attractive one. Watch this space. Thanks